Movie 2

A freely flying beetle displayed left and right turns as a result of the left and right foreleg swinging induced by electrical stimulation of the protraction muscles. The stimulation of the left foreleg protraction muscle induced a clockwise (viewed from the dorsal side of the beetle) swing of the left foreleg and resulted in a left turn of the beetle. The same set of unilateral responses occurred with right stimulation. High and low tone sounds indicated the timing of the left and right foreleg stimulations, respectively. The latter half of the movie shows the animated flight path reconstructed from the data acquired using the 3D motion tracking system. Green and red flight paths correspond to the timing of the left and right foreleg stimulations, respectively.

Role of outstretched forelegs of flying beetles revealed and demonstrated by remote leg stimulation in free flight

Yao Li, Feng Cao, Tat Thang Vo Doan, and Hirotaka Sato

Journal of Experimental Biology 2017. 220:3499-3507; doi: 10.1242/jeb.159376